Using Actigraphy and PPG for Remote Health Monitoring in Clinical Trials

The rise of wearable technology is transforming clinical trials, especially as researchers increasingly adopt decentralized or remote trial designs. With wearables, it’s now possible to collect continuous health data outside of clinical settings, offering real-time insights into participant behavior, cardiovascular health, and more—all with minimal participant burden.

In particular, wrist-worn devices equipped with actigraphy (3-axis acceleration) and photoplethysmography (PPG) are opening new avenues for clinical trial research. These devices are easy to wear continuously, allowing researchers to capture data on physical activity, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) in natural, daily-life environments. This article explores how actigraphy and PPG in simple wristbands are enhancing data collection, enabling researchers to gather deeper insights into health trends over time.

Core Features of Actigraphy and PPG in a Simple Wristband

Actigraphy (3-Axis Acceleration)

• What it measures: Actigraphy records body movement, using a 3-axis accelerometer to detect changes in position and activity levels. This allows researchers to monitor physical states like rest, activity, and sleep.
• Applications in clinical trials: Actigraphy data provides essential insights into participant behavior, quantifying levels of activity and rest. This data is valuable for studying physical activity trends, sleep quality, and the impact of lifestyle factors on health over time.

PPG (Photoplethysmography)

• What it measures: PPG uses light to detect blood volume changes in the skin, making it a non-invasive method for monitoring heart rate and HRV. PPG can provide insights into cardiovascular health and autonomic nervous system activity.
• Applications in clinical trials: PPG allows researchers to track cardiovascular responses and HRV, offering data on stress levels, recovery, and general autonomic health. HRV, in particular, is a valuable marker of autonomic function and is widely used to study stress resilience and heart health.

Together, these two features allow a simple wrist-worn device to capture a broad spectrum of physiological data, providing a powerful yet convenient tool for remote health monitoring in clinical research.

Advantages of Actigraphy and PPG for Remote Health Monitoring in Clinical Trials

1. Convenience and Compliance

• Wristband devices are user-friendly and require minimal setup, making them easy for participants to wear continuously, whether at home, at work, or while sleeping. This simplicity supports participant compliance over long periods, a crucial factor in trials that rely on continuous or long-term data.
• By reducing the need for frequent clinic visits, wearables lower the burden on participants, allowing researchers to gather data over extended durations without disrupting daily routines. This remote capability is especially beneficial for decentralized trials and trials with large, geographically dispersed populations.

2. Comprehensive Health Insights from Minimal Setup

• Although wristbands are relatively simple devices, they provide powerful insights into a range of health metrics. Actigraphy data enables researchers to monitor participants’ physical activity, movement, and sleep, while PPG captures continuous cardiovascular data, offering a holistic picture of physical and autonomic health.
• The ability to monitor HRV is particularly valuable in clinical trials, as it offers continuous feedback on stress levels, recovery, and autonomic function. With HRV data, researchers gain a clearer understanding of participants’ stress resilience and recovery patterns, all without needing complex equipment.

3. Data Continuity and Real-World Relevance

• Long-term, continuous data from wearable devices allows researchers to observe changes over time, track real-life behaviors, and capture physiological responses to daily activities. This “real-world” data provides a more realistic view of participants’ health than the brief snapshots typically gathered in clinical settings.
• Continuous monitoring also helps detect patterns and responses that may only appear over time, such as fluctuations in HRV or changes in activity levels. These insights are invaluable for tracking progress and health trends, offering a more nuanced understanding of participants’ overall health status.

Applications of Actigraphy and PPG Data in Clinical Trials

1. Monitoring Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior

• Actigraphy provides detailed data on daily activity levels, categorizing different types of movement and detecting sedentary behavior patterns. This data is vital for trials that study the effects of physical activity, lifestyle interventions, or physical rehabilitation on health outcomes.
• By quantifying activity patterns, actigraphy helps researchers understand how participants’ lifestyles impact health, such as the effects of exercise on cardiovascular function or the consequences of prolonged sedentary behavior.

2. Evaluating Sleep Quality and Patterns

• Actigraphy data can also be used to assess sleep patterns, including sleep duration and restfulness. This information is crucial for trials examining sleep disorders, mental health, or the restorative effects of sleep on physical and emotional well-being.
• The ability to monitor sleep quality remotely allows researchers to capture real-world sleep data over long periods, enabling them to study how sleep impacts other health markers like stress and recovery.

3. Tracking Cardiovascular Health

• With PPG-based HRV and heart rate monitoring, researchers can track changes in cardiovascular health over time. HRV data provides insight into autonomic nervous system function, while heart rate data reveals responses to daily stressors, physical activity, and rest.
• This data is especially useful in studies focused on cardiovascular disease, recovery from illness, and metabolic health, as it enables researchers to monitor heart health continuously and non-invasively in natural settings.

4. Assessing Stress and Autonomic Nervous System Function

• HRV, derived from PPG data, is a key marker of autonomic nervous system balance, providing insights into stress levels, resilience, and recovery. HRV data is particularly valuable for trials that investigate mental health, stress management interventions, and general wellness.
• By analyzing HRV in relation to daily activities and sleep, researchers can track how participants’ stress levels fluctuate over time, offering a deeper understanding of autonomic responses to real-life events and environments.

Conclusion: Actigraphy and PPG as Valuable Tools for Remote Monitoring in Clinical Trials

Actigraphy and PPG in simple wrist-worn devices are transforming remote health monitoring in clinical trials. These technologies offer a wealth of data on physical activity, cardiovascular health, and autonomic function, all collected continuously in real-world settings. For researchers, this combination of data provides a more complete picture of health, enabling long-term tracking that aligns closely with participants’ everyday lives.

With the ability to capture real-world behaviors and physiological responses, actigraphy and PPG support a wide range of clinical applications, particularly in decentralized trials where continuous, remote monitoring can add significant value to health data collection.

Explore Fibion’s HRV, ECG & Movement Tools

For advanced HRV, ECG, and movement tracking, explore Fibion’s cutting-edge devices designed to support comprehensive health research:

• Fibion Flash: A versatile, compact device that provides long-duration, single-lead ECG and HRV monitoring with easy setup, perfect for extended data collection in natural environments. Learn more about Fibion Flash
• Fibion Vitals: A multi-signal wearable solution for real-time monitoring, combining HRV, ECG, movement, and other vital metrics for a complete health assessment. Ideal for both clinical and field settings. Learn more about Fibion Vitals
• Fibion Emfit: A non-contact sleep and HRV tracker, providing continuous data on sleep stages, recovery, and autonomic balance, without requiring participants to wear a device. Learn more about Fibion Emfit

Each Fibion product is designed to deliver high-quality, accurate data, empowering researchers to gather meaningful insights in real-world settings.

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